The New Genogoths
by FpNitecrawler
Summary: THis story takes place after the Generation X team disbands, and feeds off the Genogoths Paperback book storyline from Generation X.
1. Default Chapter

Prologue:  
An Introduction  
  
Things had not gone well for Black since the Generation X kids, with the help of the Genogoths, had defeated and destroyed Project Homegrown in North Carolina. The Genogoths continued to help out the "lesser" mutants which they felt needed the help.  
  
Dissention within had proven to be the downfall of the Genogoths. What had started with Leather and his group on that mission had continued over the next couple of years. Within the last six months of the Genogoths existence, Black started making plans of his own. He used his rather large funding to scout around and find a place suitable for a Headquarters for his own group. Inspired by the former mutant group that he had fought alongside, Generation X, he decided to create his own team to carry on the tradition of the Genogoths: To protect the existence of the X-Gene.  
  
He found the perfect spot hidden in the small town of Vernonia, OR. The town had a population of roughly 700 people and was located in the middle of a massive forest, about a hundred miles from the larger cities; perfectly out of site from prying eyes. Black decided he would put the old Generation X team back together since he had heard they had disbanded. He contacted Paige Guthrie, the mutant known as Husk, only to find out she was a member of the Paris Branch of X-Corp and her, Jubilee, and M had no intentions of leaving. So he had been left with no choice other than to find his own team and put them together and train them himself.  
  
He had started his search in Seattle; where the last remaining faction of the old Genogoths remained. Here he had found two mutants: Ryan Christed and Xi Kanwan, who had eloped from their feuding families. He took the "Romeo and Juliette" couple and made them the first two members of the new Genogoths. Ryan was a tall white guy with blonde hair. Xi was Asian and quite a bit shorter than Ryan. She had long black hair that hung midway down her back.  
  
The next three members that he recruited had been mutants formerly under the care of the Genogoths. Ashlyn Treudeax was born and raised in Cajun country in Louisiana. Ashlyn stood about 5'3", making her the shortest member of the group, she had shoulder length red hair and the greenest eyes Black had ever seen. Her grand parents were members of the Genogoths and therefore were put in charge of caring for her after her parents were killed in a Mardi Gras Explosion. One day, while tending to the household plants, she suddenly found herself being attacked by them. Her grand parents quickly figured out that this was their little grand daughters powers coming into be and they sat her down and told her of her unique ability and that she shouldn't be afraid of it. Her grandparents quickly found out that taking care of a teenager was taxing enough on the emotions, but taking care of a mutant teenager full time was even more so. They were more than happy when she decided to go with Black to Oregon, and enroll in the special school there.  
  
The fourth member that Black recruited was a kid that he had found on the streets of New York. He had taken to running and living on the streets in fear that the Genogoths were out to harm him. Art Bantham had been one of the few mutants under Genogoth care that knew he was under it. Art was a typical looking African American kid trying to make a living off the streets. He had a bald head and muscular physique. He had made most of his money off of drug dealing, and had even done some hard time in jail on a conviction. His first love, though, had been basketball. After his jail sentence, he had taken to making his money on the street in bets on basketball games. At the age of 19, he would turn out to be the oldest member of the group by two months over the next recruit.  
  
Angelo Hernandez was of latino decent and proud of it. He was about 6'0" tall with short black hair. He was 19, but still two months younger than the oldest member of the group, Art. Angelo had been one of the easiest mutants for the Genogoths to acquire and watch over. Angelo had fled from Mexico and from his father who was a well-known drug lord. When Angelo had made his wishes that he didn't want to be in the family business known to his father, his father had tried to kill him. He narrowly escaped and fled to the states. After repeated attempts on his life from assassins sent by his father, Angelo enrolled in what he thought was a witness protection program. It was actually the Genogoth program he enrolled with. They fabricated Angelo's current identity and have managed to conceal him from his father. 


	2. Getting to Know One Another

Disclaimer: The characters portrayed within are the property of Marvel Comics and are used without permission in a non-profitable fan fiction. I do not own these characters. I do however own the rights to the following characters as they are my own creation: Angelo Hernandez (Crickett), Ryan Christed (R.C.), Xi Kanwan (Shekay), Arthur Bantham (Shifter), and Ashlyn Treudeax (Ivy). These characters are fictitious and any resemblance to any person, both real and unreal, are strictly coincidental. Please do not use these characters without prior permission.  
  
Chapter 1  
Getting to know one another.  
  
Ryan Christed and Xi Kanwan were romantically involved, much to the dismay of the parents of both kids, long before Black ever recruited either one of them. By agreeing to join Black's group, called The Genogoths, Ryan and Xi thought they had found a way of avoiding their parents controlling desires. They got along great with each other because one fateful night, they had both found out they had extraordinary powers.  
  
They had snuck away from their houses and met up in town. Ryan had driven both of them to a private make-out spot overlooking the city of Seattle. While making out, both of them suddenly unleashed their powers in the excitement. Things started flying all over the place in the car, and they had no idea what was going on. A cigarette lighter flew at Xi's head and she instinctively threw her hands up to deflect the object and when it hit her hands it mysteriously disappeared. So did everything else that she touched that flew at her head. Once everything settled down, both Ryan and Xi were scared out of their minds. They immediately went home and did not talk to each other again until Black showed up.  
  
Contrary to what Ryan thinks to this day, Xi had known about her powers before that fateful night. She had been afraid to tell him of her powers before that, for fear he would think she was a freak. Before meeting Ryan, she had tried to get on at that new school in Snow Valley, Massachusetts, where supposedly they were teaching mutants how to use their powers, but the school ended up closing after some of the normal students had been killed by a bomb set off in the school by one of the new headmasters. After that, she found it next to impossible to track down any of the mutants that she had thought had been in that school. She only knew the name of one of the headmasters that had been at that school and her name was Emma Frost. When she tried to look up this person's name, she had come to find out that she was actually the CEO and Chairman of Frost Enterprises, which made her wonder if Ms. Frost was a mutant at all, or just perhaps financial backing for the school. Repeated attempts to get a hold of her had failed. Soon thereafter, she had met Ryan and decided to try to lead as much of a normal life as she could with a normal guy. Only Ryan turned out not to be normal. Then Black showed up at her door with an invitation that her and Ryan couldn't turn down.  
  
And now she sat in the living room of the Genogoths Headquarters. Ryan was next to her asleep on the couch. Nobody had heard from Black in the four days since they had gotten there. She couldn't believe how nice the headquarters were. There were separate dorm rooms for each student and the girls and guys stayed in separate wings off the main living quarters.  
  
There was a park located behind the massive building that had exercise equipment, obstacle courses, tennis courts, and basketball courts, where, if she remembered correctly, was where that Mexican kid, Angelo, and the black kid, Arthur had said they were going.  
  
She had no idea what their powers were, only that they had them. They all had some sort of special gift, which was why they were there. The thing was that nobody was ready to show off their "gift" for anyone else. Everyone had formed their own special cliques rather quickly. Angelo and Art were the two oldest members, and both of them apparently loved basketball, so they had become friends very fast. Of course she and Ryan had been close long before they had gotten there, so they were close. They were even closer now than before they had gotten there. The only person who hadn't fit in was the petite little girl, Ashlyn. She was Cajun, they all could tell by the way she talked and everyone thought she was incredibly weird for all the plants she had brought in with her when she had moved in. Xi figured the plants were just a hobby of hers, but couldn't help wondering if maybe it was somehow related to her power.  
  
Ryan stirred next to her on the couch and woke up long enough to start floating a glass of water from the coffee table over to him for a drink. Smiling, Xi reached out and touched the drink when it was mere inches from his hand, instantly teleporting the glass back to the coffee table. He huffed and playfully smacked her. He started floating the drink back to him. She giggled and got up off the couch and went to the kitchen. The kitchen had come completely stocked with everything they would need to survive for a month without leaving the house. She was startled when she came through the door to find Ashlyn sitting there with a plant on the table. The plant was dried up and brown, looking like it had long been dead. She looked like she had been crying.  
  
"What's the matter?" Xi asked, curious why a girl would be crying over one plant when she had a room full of them.  
  
"I didn't put him close enough to the window." Ashlyn said absently. "I should have listened to him"  
  
"Listen to whom? Angelo? Art?" Xi said confused.  
  
Ashlyn rolled her eyes and picked up the plant off the table. She closed her eyes and right before Xi's eyes, the brown and withered plant renewed itself as green as can be and sprouted new leaves.  
  
Ashlyn opened her eyes and looked at the plant. "IT WORKED!" She exclaimed smiling, and as she left the kitchen, Xi could have sworn the plant waved bye to her.  
  
So she was right. Ashlyn's power did have something to do with plants. But how was bringing a plant back from the dead a good enough power to warrant her joining this group? She decided she was too hungry to think about that and proceeded to open the fridge and look inside. She reached in and grabbed a Cream Soda and teleported it into the living room. As soon as the Soda flashed out of her hand she heard Ryan scream out after a loud thunk came from the living room. She rushed into the living room and saw Ryan standing to the side of the couch, rubbing his head. The bottle of soda was lying, spinning, on the floor.  
  
"I'm so sorry, honey!" Xi said, her Asian features lighting up with concern. "I meant to get it on the coffee table."  
  
"Would it have been too much to just carry it in here with you?" Ryan said, blue eyes flashing with annoyance.  
  
"Isn't that why we are here? To learn about and develop our powers?" Xi said defending herself.  
  
"By teleporting bottles of soda over my head?" Ryan said laughing.  
  
Xi crossed the room over to where the bottle was still spinning on the floor and reached down to pick it up. As her hand got close to it, it scooted across the floor about a foot. Xi looked up at Ryan. "Knock it off." She said, smiling. When she reached down to pick it up again, the bottle scooted a little bit further.  
  
"Can't teleport it if you can't touch it, can you?" Ryan said mockingly.  
  
Xi tried a couple more times to get the bottle, then finally gave up and turned and chased after Ryan through the house.  
  
"Dang, they got it bad for each other, eh?" Angelo said to Art.  
  
They had been playing basketball on the court when they finally decided they would rather watch and see if they could learn more about the other "students".  
  
"Yeah, but at least they'll keep each other company." Art said. "I'm wondering where Black went after dumping us off here."  
  
"I don't know, amigo, but if his intentions were to dump us off in this mansion and disappear, I'm all for it."  
  
The saw Ryan run by the hall and dart up the stairs to the girls dorm with Xi close behind.  
  
"I'm going for a closer look." Angelo said and sprung in the air, landing on the first story roof that stuck out in front of the second story windows.  
  
"Show off." Art yelled up at him. Art started climbing the lattice work next to the window. To help him along, he shaped his fingers into hooks and thinned his feet out to where they could fit into the lattice work. When he finally made it onto the roof, he saw Angelo crawling in through an open window. On further down, Art noticed a window that had vines covering it. "Must be Ashlyn's room." He thought to himself.  
  
"C'mon, hombre", Angelo said, motioning for Art to come in through the window. As Art was coming in through the window, he realized they were coming in through the window of the last girls' dorm room. The sixth and final member of the group had yet to show up at the Headquarters. Art figured that was what Black was out doing, trying to find the sixth member. All of a sudden, there was a chime and a voice came over the intercom system of the house.  
  
"Everyone report to the living area, please." The voice belonged to Black.  
  
"Master of the house is home." Angelo said and headed for the stairs. As Art exited the room, he saw Ashlyn come out of her room. She was carrying a dozen roses with her and she was wearing a full body suit made out of durable leather.  
  
"Grrrrrrrrrowwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrr." Angelo purred at her.  
  
Ashlyn rolled her eyes and walked past him and down the stairs. When Angelo got downstairs, he saw that Ryan, Ashlyn, and Xi were all standing in front of Black. Angelo walked up and stood next to Ashlyn, looking her up and down. He turned toward the stairs and couldn't see Art coming down them.  
  
"Where's Art?" Xi asked.  
  
"I don't know, chica. He was right behind me." Angelo said confused.  
  
"Art will be joining us in a little bit." Black said. "We will begin without him. Each of you have a gift as I'm sure you know. I'm going to start over here to my left and start introducing each of you to the rest of the group."  
  
He gestured toward Ryan. "This is Ryan Christed from Seattle, WA, and his girlfriend, also from Seattle, Xi Kanwan. Next is Ashlyn Treudeax from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Angelo Hernandez here is from Mexico originally, and last but not least is Arthur Bantham, who is from New York City."  
  
As he introduced them, each one stepped forward. All except Art, who of course wasn't there. Angelo noticed that Ashlyn was still carrying her flowers.  
  
"And now for your gifts. I want each of you to come forward and demonstrate your abilities. Keep it safe and remember not to destroy anything."  
  
Ryan stepped forward first and reached his hand toward Ashlyn's flowers. The flowers shot out of her hands and ended up in Ryan's. Ashlyn looked extremely pissed off, and started to step toward Ryan. Xi cut her off and walked up to him first.  
  
"That was rude, give those back."  
  
As Xi touched the flowers, Ashlyn realized that suddenly she was holding her flowers again and that Ryan wasn't. It only took her a moment to realize that she had her Roses back.  
  
"How dare you!" She yelled and started advancing toward Ryan. As she advanced, the roses started getting bigger and the vines started wrapping around her body. By the time she got to Ryan, she was literally covered in a suit of thorn armor. She swung a spike covered arm toward Ryan, who quickly dodged out of the way.  
  
"Hey! I'm sorry, geez!" Ryan said, continuously backing away as she swung again and again.  
  
"That's ENOUGH!" Black roared. The kids stopped where they were. "Ryan, you will keep your hands off things that are not yours, do you understand?"  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Ashlyn, you will NOT try to kill your teammates if they touch your plants. Do you understand?"  
  
"He hurt them, and she.." Ashlyn started pointing to Xi.  
  
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Black said again forcefully.  
  
"Oui." Was all she said, hanging her head. The plant had reverted back to the six flower bouquet that she had started out with. She winced as the vines separated from her, and Angelo realized why she had come down wearing all leather. Even with the protection of the leather, he saw small rips in the leather caused by the thorns. There were multiple scratches that were bleeding.  
  
"Wow, you must really care for plants, chica." Angelo said to her as she fell back in line.  
  
She just looked at him and gave him a really creepy smile. He saw the vines in the roses start reaching out for him.  
  
"Oh, no you don't!" Angelo said as he leapt up to the balcony about 20ft above them. The three of the other students gasped collectively at the site.  
  
"No wonder he likes basketball." Ryan said.  
  
"Well that only leaves one more student. Art, please demonstrate your power." Black spoke as if Art was standing in the room with them.  
  
The three students on the floor looked around puzzled. Angelo yelled from the loft. "Hey, senor! Art isn't here, remember?"  
  
"Oh, but I am."  
  
The voice came from an end-table that was next to the stairs leading up to the girl's dorms. The table started twisting and melting and eventually reverted back to its original shape that was Arthur Bantham.  
  
"Wow!" Angelo said as he leapt down to the floor. "You're a regular Mystique!" He said referring to the one time member of X-Factor and world renowned mutant terrorist.  
  
"Not quite." Black said. "Art can change his shape, but only into inanimate objects. So far, he can't change his appearance to look like someone else. Mystique is just the opposite."  
  
"Now that the five of you know each other a little better, I want to discuss something with you. As you know, this operation is called the Genogoths, and it's supposed to consist of six members. You may be wondering why there are only five of you. To tell you the truth, I just finished talking with Paige Guthrie, a mutant associated with the X-Men and she turned me down to come to this school. This is the tenth time she has turned me down, and she grows tired of me asking, so I'm afraid for the time being you will not have."  
  
Black was interrupted by a knock on the door. He looked wide-eyed toward the door.  
  
He walked over to the door and opened it up. There stood a hunched over girl of about 16 years of age; about 5'11" and very Native American looking.  
  
"Help me." she managed to get out before she collapsed into Black's arms.  
  
"Quick students, get her to the infirmary!" Black said.  
  
Without hesitation Arthur said, "Here use me." With that, he melted to the floor and formed into a stretcher. Angelo laid the girl on the stretcher and the four students took a corner and quickly carried her to the infirmary.  
  
Black stepped outside and looked around. It was dusk now, and a thunderstorm was rolling in. It was too dark to see past the gates, but all of a sudden there was a soft flash of lightning and Black saw the silhouette of what appeared to be two dogs or wolves standing at the gate. Not believing what he just saw, he turned and started to go back into the house. As he was about to shut the door, two blood curdling howls were followed by a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder.  
  
Confused, Black decided it would be best to not pursue the matter. He headed down to the infirmary. 


	3. Wolfpup

Disclaimer: The characters portrayed within are the property of Marvel Comics and are used without permission in a non-profitable fan fiction. I do not own these characters. I do however own the rights to the following characters as they are my own creation: Angelo Hernandez (Crickett), Ryan Christed (R.C.), Xi Kanwan (Shekay), Arthur Bantham (Shifter), Jane Doe (Wolf-pup) and Ashlyn Treudeax (Ivy). These characters are fictitious and any resemblances to any person, both real and unreal, are strictly coincidental. Please do not use these characters without prior permission.  
  
Chapter 2  
Wolfpup  
  
As Black entered the infirmary, he saw that Xi was hooking up the gurl to various instruments including a respirator and I.V.  
  
"Do we not have a doctor here?!" She said to Black as he entered.  
  
"He's on his way, but wasn't supposed to start until tonight." The other five students were standing off to the side with concerned looks on their faces.  
  
"Well, you're damn lucky my father is a doctor and I know a little bit about this stuff. But that doctor better get here fast. Otherwise she's not going to make it. I can't do stitches, and that." she pointed to the girls side, "is going to need them!"  
  
Black moved around to the side that Xi indicated and realized the girl had a big gash and was losing quite a bit of blood.  
  
"Ryan, come here." Black said taking off his black jacket. He handed it to Ryan. "Put pressure on the wound and if you can do it, try to stop the bleeding with your telekinesis."  
  
"I don't think I can." Ryan said scared.  
  
"Just try son. Just try."  
  
Black heard the doorbell ring and realized it had to be the doctor. At least he hoped so, he didn't want to have another injured unexpected guest show up. He rushed out of the room and up to the door. He threw it open.  
  
"Quick, we need your assistance!" Black said, pulling him through the door.  
  
Without a word the doctor and another lady that was with him rushed to the infirmary behind Black.  
  
When they got to the infirmary, he looked the girl over. "This is going to be bad." He said and motioned to his bag. "Jeska, start unpacking. Everyone else out. I'll let you know how things go."  
  
One by one the kids filed out of the infirmary. Black thought it would be best if they retired for the night and tried to get some sleep. The kids climbed up the stairs back ot the main floor and the guys and girls separated to go to their dorms.  
  
Xi caught up to Ashlyn at the stairs. "Ashlyn, I want to apologize for Ryan's actions, earlier. He often acts without thinking."  
  
"Oui, he does. Just ask him not to hurt anymore plants around me. I can feel what they feel. Kinda." She said. "You think she'll be our sixth?"  
  
"Maybe so," Said Xi, "If so, she's going to get that third room. Are you tired?" She said smiling.  
  
"Not after what just happened." Ashlyn said. "Let's set up her room a bit and help her out. She's going to be here a while, regardless of whether she's the sixth or not. She's going to need a place to rest."  
  
With that, Xi got the foldaway bed from in her closet (she had no idea why it was there in the first place, and she was sure there was a permanent bed somewhere for the room, but she didn't know where) and moved it into her room. Xi contributed some personal items. Of course, Ashlyn contributed some plants to lighten up the room. Then the two of them put up "get well soon, Jane" signs after Xi had decided to call her Jane Doe until they found out her real name. As the two girls were leaving to get some more stuff, they ran into the guys on their way up the stairs with some stuff.  
  
"Looks like you guys had the same idea we did, chica." Angelo said to Xi as they went into the room.  
  
"We just brought some simple stuff like pillows, blankets, you know." Ryan said.  
  
"Oh, no! You guys have girlified the room all up already!!" Art sighed.  
  
"Well, duh! She is a girl!" Xi said. "You guys realize Black sent us to our separate rooms on purpose right?"  
  
"Settle down, chica." Angelo said. "We just want to help her feel right at home. Black would want that."  
  
After everybody got their stuff in place, they all went to bed hoping for some good news in the morning.  
  
Xi was the first one up in the morning. She hadn't slept well the whole night, constantly waking up to bad dreams involving the disturbing images of Jane's mangled body from the night before. When she awoke, she realized she was lying on the floor and her bed was resting against the opposite wall of her room. When she had bad dreams, she would randomly teleport things she touched in her sleep. It was frustrating, but she had hardly ever done any real damage, so it was just frustrating that it happened.  
  
She got dressed and walked down to the kitchen. She was hungry and wanted to make sure she got what she wanted to eat before the other people woke up.  
  
She was pouring hersef a bowl of cereal when Art came downstairs.  
  
"Mornin'" Xi said to him.  
  
"Good morning." He said, taking a seat next to her at the bar. He looked outside and saw that the storm outside had not subsided, and it was still puring down rain. "You heard anything yet?" he asked her.  
  
"Nope. Just got up about 20 min ago."  
  
"Well, hopefully the news will be better than the weather." He said jerking his thumb in the direction of the window.  
  
"It's been doing that all night." Xi said.  
  
Silence encompassed the next few moments, until Ryan walked into the room.  
  
"Good morning, sweetheart." He said.  
  
"Well, good morning to you, too, sexy!" Art said laughing.  
  
"Very funny, Artie." Ryan said. "Pass me the cereal when you're done with it, funny man!"  
  
Angelo was the next person to come down and he walked right past everyone and just waved on his way by. He headed straight into the living room where he turned the Walt and Recall show on the TV.  
  
Ashlyn appeared at the top of the stairs and looked at the television. "What's this?" She asked as she walked down the stairs and plopped down next to Angelo.  
  
"Well, that hombre on the left is a guy by the name of Walt Norman. He's pretty much an anti-mutant activist. Although I have to admit, he's softened up quite a bit over the years."  
  
"And the cute guy on the right?" Ashlyn prompted.  
  
"Scooter McCloud. A.K.A. Recall. A mutant with the apparent ability to find lost things. He started with Walt on the radio program 'The Walt Norman Show' and eventually helped make the radio show such a hit that it became the Walt and Recall show. And as you can see, it got popular enough for them to get their own Talk show."  
  
"A talk show? About Mutants?"  
  
"Yup, today they are going to be talking to a mutant by the name of Jonothan Starsmore. He's a member of the X-Men."  
  
Both of them fell into silence as Jonothan Starsmore, the mutant known as Chamber, walked onto the stage at the show. Walt and Recall took turns asking questions and remarks. Just as Chamber was about to show why he was called Chamber, the television shut off.  
  
"Hey! What gives, chica? That was the best part!" Angelo said looking at Ashlyn.  
  
"Wasn't me." She said pointing to the remote still lying on the coffee table.  
  
Angelo reached over and picked up the remote to turn the TV back on, but to no avail.  
  
"What gives?" Angelo said throwing the remote on the couch.  
  
All of a sudden the intercom came alive. It was Black. "All students come to the Living Room if you aren't already there." Came the announcement.  
  
Ryan, Art, and Xi came into the living room carrying their cereal with them.  
  
"Man! Can't the guy let us eat?" Art complained as he plopped into the recliner.  
  
Black emerged from the stairs leading down to the infirmary. He walked over to the center of the living room.  
  
"How's Jane?" Xi asked, using the name she had given to the girl last night.  
  
"Who?" Black asked, confused.  
  
"Sorry, I started calling the girl Jane Doe last night. It came out unintentionally."  
  
"Well, that's what I came up here to talk to you all about. She's going to be fine, although she has no memory of her previous life before waking up in the infrirmary. Therefore I was going to ask you all to help me pick out her name for her, but I believe you already did." He paused and signaled toward the stairs to the infirmary. "I'd like to introduce everyone to Jane!"  
  
The girl that had shown up last night on their doorstep shyly came walking up the steps. She had a mid-drift shirt on that revealed the gauze that was wrapped around her waist over her wound.  
  
"Jane doesn't remember anything about her past, but she does know she possesses a gift." Black watched as smiles came across the faces of a couple of the students. They knew she was going to be staying with the team, and they were happy to have their sixth member. "Everyone come outside."  
  
"Um, it's still raining, big man." Art said looking out the window.  
  
"That's fine, we only need to go out on the porch." Black said.  
  
Black led the way toward the door. Once outside on the covered porch, he turned toward Jane. "Show them what you can do. Then they will each show you what they can do."  
  
Jane closed her eyes and concentrated. A squirrel came running down a tree to the right of the porch, and came running across the lawn toward the porch. Right through the driving rain, and straight up Jane's pant leg to rest on her shoulder. She bent down and picked up an achorn off the porch and handed it to the little guy. "Everyone, I want you to meet.." She paused for a second, "Achorn, my pet squirrel."  
  
Angelo looked at her confused. "So what, chica? You have a pet squirrel and you call that a gift?"  
  
Xi elbowed Angelo in the side. He let out a rush of air and rubbed his ribs.  
  
"Um, guys?" Ashlyn said pointing to the edge of the trees. A mountain lion came running out of the woods and up to the porch. It stopped and stared right at Angelo.  
  
Everyone backed up against the wall, and Ashlyn pushed Angelo toward the front of the porch. The mountain lion growled.  
  
"Easy, Samson, it'll be alright." Jane said and apparently at the suggestion of Jane, the lion took off back into the woods.  
  
"Whoa! Chica does have some skills!" Angelo said, wiping the sweat off his brow.  
  
"Let's go back inside." Black said and all the students filed into the living room. Once back inside the house, all the other members proceded to show Jane their gifts and how they can use them. She was getting more and more used to everyone by the minute. Black had the feeling that she was going to fit in very well here.  
  
"Now that we have a full roster; everyone is going to pick out a code name to go by during missions. Try to pick something you are going to like, because you are going to be using it for a while. Ryan, we'll start with you."  
  
"I've already thought about this. I'm using R.C. Not only is it my initials, but my teleportation ability is kinda like a radio controlled car." He said smiling.  
  
"Wow, I haven't even thought about it." Xi said. "I guess I'll do the same. I'll use Shekay. My first name and my last initial."  
  
"I'm going to go by Crickett." Angelo said.  
  
"Shifter for me." Said Art.  
  
"I'll go by Ivy." Ashlyn offered.  
  
Everyone looked toward the newest member.  
  
"Umm, I have no idea. Everyone's name fits them somehow. Why don't you guys give me a name?"  
  
"Wolfpup." Everyone turned toward Black.  
  
"What.." Art said "kinda name is Wolfpup?"  
  
"I have my reasons." Black said remembering the pair of wolves by the front gate last night.  
  
"I kinda like it." Ashlyn said walking up to Jane. "C'mon Wolfpup, let's go show you your room. Xi and I decorated it ourselves. Mostly." She said smiling at the boys. Achorn was still riding on Jane's shoulder all the way up the stairs.  
  
Black excused himself out the front door without saying a word.  
  
The guys took turns looking at each other.  
  
"Well, that ended rather abruptly." Ryan said.  
  
"Ya'll want to go shoot some pool?" Angelo asked.  
  
The boys disappeared to the boy's dorm to enjoy the rest of the day. 


	4. Uninvited Guest

Chapter 3 Uninvited Guest  
  
The rest of the day went by without event. Black had not shown back up, and was content on letting the kids get to know each other a little better.  
  
Jane liked her room for the most part. She did decide to change quite a few things, although much to Xi's delight, she left the "Get Well" signs up.  
  
Morning came entirely too early for Xi. Once again, she woke up to her bed being moved, but as far as she could tell, she had slept peacefully. One more thing she was going to have on her mind. She could have sworn she heard Jane crying at one point during the night. She had gone out onto the roof right outside her room with Ryan, so they could have some quiet time to themselves. While lying there looking at the stars, both of them had heard sobs coming from her room. Neither one of them could imagine what it must be like for her.  
  
As she had done every morning since she had gotten there, she went downstairs to eat breakfast. She found the Doctor and his nurse (Dr. Franks and Nurse Jeska had been their names) sitting on the couch watching the Walt and Recall show with Angelo. All three were eating plates full of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, etc. She went into the kitchen and found Ryan and Art cooking the food.  
  
"Dig in, gal. There's plenty for everyone!" Art said as she came in.  
  
"Black showed up this morning with a huge delivery van. They unloaded a bunch of huge crates into the park behind the house." Ryan told Xi as she loaded up her plate.  
  
"Any idea what's in them?" Xi asked, as she looked out the windows toward the backyard. There was nothing that she could see, but perhaps they had been put into the storage facility to the left.  
  
"Nope, and Black wasn't exactly forthcoming either." Art said. "All he'd say is that we'd find out later."  
  
Ashlyn and Jane came walking in right at the end of the conversation.  
  
"Find out what later?" Ashlyn asked.  
  
Xi filled them both in, with a little help from Ryan and Art when she got her facts wrong. While she was explaining, Ashlyn and Jane fixed themselves some plates of food.  
  
They all went into the living room and joined the others watching the TV.  
  
Walt Norman was right in the middle of talking about an attack that had happened yesterday, supposedly perpetrated by the mutant Sabertooth. Naturally Walt was focusing on the negative facts, and while Recall was agreeing that Sabertooth was indeed dangerous, they were differing on the punishments that befit the situation. Walt wanted the mutant assassin dead. Recall thought he may be able to be reformed. He was quick to point out the short stint that Sabertooth had done in X-Factor.  
  
Walt then pointed out the one detail that everyone had been waiting to find out. They were all pretty sure that Sabertooth had been stopped by the X-Men, naturally, but they didn't know where the battle had taken place. It had taken place right outside of Vernonia, OR.  
  
The group gasped as the show cut to clips that showed the battle in progress. It had taken place at an abandoned logging facility that was two miles away from where they were now. They were also wrong as to who had stopped Sabertooth. The battle had not been between the X-Men and him, it had just been a battle between two rivals; Wolverine and Sabertooth.  
  
According to the report being told on the show, Sabertooth and Wolverine had run into each other while both men were searching for a former Weapon X outfit that had been rumored to exist in the dense forests that surrounded the quaint town of Vernonia. All the clues had apparently pointed to that facility as being the former location. Walt said that the information had come from a mysterious person that had refused to give their name. Recall remarked that it was more than a coincidence that both Wolverine and Sabertooth found out about this information at the same time. That mysterious person that had phoned into the show had to have pointed it out to both of them.  
  
During the fight, Sabertooth had escaped, causing Walt to remark that if Wolverine couldn't stop Sabertooth, the surrounding areas were going to be in trouble.  
  
The TV clicked off and Dr. Franks stood up. Turning to the group, he said: "I don't want anyone to go outside. We've got a killer on the loose in the vicinity and Sabertooth's out there somewhere, too." He said and smiled. "I'm just kidding, but we don't know what frame of mind Wolverine's going to be in."  
  
"Man, I've heard too many stories about Wolverine and his berserker rages." Art said.  
  
"I'm going to go initiate the lock down on the house, and activate the security systems." Jeska said as she got up.  
  
"I'll go downstairs and call Black to find out where he is, and let him know he's going to have to use his clearance codes to get in." Dr. Franks said and headed down the stairs to the infirmary.  
  
A tapping sound came from the front window and the group jumped and turned toward the window. Samson, the mountain lion, stood there pawing at the window. Jane rushed to the door and tried to open it, but Jeska had already triggered the lockdown.  
  
Frustrated after pulling on the door a couple of times, she ran over to the window. She put her hand on the spot where Samson was pawing and the two stayed there for about a minute in what everyone else thought was silence.  
  
Suddenly, Samson broke away from the window and ran back into the woods. Jane stood and turned to the group, a look of horror on her face.  
  
"Samson has seen Sabertooth or Wolverine in the woods just outside the mansion. He's not sure which one. He just described a feral, hairy man."  
  
Jeska came back in the room as Jane was saying this. "I don't think the lockout is going to keep either one of them out if they want in, but at least they aren't going to be just waltzing in."  
  
"So what do we do now?" Ashlyn asked looking around.  
  
"Follow me." The voice had come from the stairs leading down to the infirmary. The group turned to see Dr. Franks standing there. "I just got off the phone with Black, he wanted me to go ahead and give something to you. He's sorry he's not going to be here to give them to you himself."  
  
The six kids and Jeska followed the Dr. down the stairs and they walked past the infirmary to what appeared to be a massive blank wall. Franks punched in an access code and the wall split down the middle and the two halves folded in on each other and opened into a massive room.  
  
"Whoa!" Angelo said stepping inside. "What's this place?"  
  
"According to Black, this is your training facility. It's still being finalized, so that's not the reason I brought you down here." He walked across the floor dodging the packages that littered the floor of the massive room to a door on the other side that had a sign above it that read "Locker Room". He stopped in front of the door and signaled inside.  
  
"Boys locker room is on the left and the girls are on the right. You will find three lockers in each. In each locker, you will find your uniforms. Change into them and get ready to defend your home, should the need arise." Franks said and walked back toward the door exiting the training facility.  
  
"Alright!" Xi said as she sprinted down the hall with Jane and Ashlyn close behind. The three girls bolted through the door.  
  
"Well, we're about to become heroes." Ryan said as he and the other two started to walk toward the boys locker room.  
  
When they got inside the locker room, they found the three lockers located on the far wall. Each of the lockers had their code names engraved on a nameplate at the top. Ryan walked up to the locker that read R.C. and popped it open. Inside was a dark green spandex shirt with the Genogoth logo on the chest, dark green pants with dark red flames on the legs and a mask that was the same color green as the pants and shirt. He looked around at the other two who were also examining their outfits. Angelo had a pair of green spandex shorts and button up top that had the Genogoth logo on the back. He also had a mask, but it was different than Ryan's. Obviously the theme here was to hide their identity, yet not for every member to look like every other member.  
  
Art had the weirdest looking costume. His top looked like a hooded sweatshirt with the hood stuck in the up position. Only his face would be showing through the top of his costume, and Ryan wondered if the selection had anything to do with their powers. Art had pants kind of like Ryan's but the pattern was different.  
  
"So, amigos, am I like supposed to go commando in this or what?" Angelo asked holding up the spandex shorts. They all laughed.  
  
"I'm definitely wearing underwear in mine." Ryan said as he stripped down to change into his costume.  
  
"Good thing I don't have any hair." Art said looking at the head covering of his costume. "Might get it messed up with this thing. I might add that green would not have been my first choice of color either."  
  
"I kinda like the color." Angelo said putting on his shirt. "I like my outfit too, now that I have it on. Perfect fit and plenty of flexibility, should I need to jump somewhere quick. What about you, ese?" Angelo asked Ryan.  
  
"Mine's alright, I guess. I just feel like the generic one is all."  
  
"Yeah, well at least you don't look as stupid as I feel." Angelo and Ryan turned to look at Art who had finally wrestled the top part of his costume on and had gotten the headpiece situated. Angelo and Ryan stifled laughs. "Fine laugh it up, but it's actually really comfortable. Almost like it's a part of my body." Art said moving around experimentally.  
  
The guys exited the locker room to find the girls weren't even done yet. They walked out into the training facility and waited just outside the locker area's main entrance.  
  
"Probably not done doing their hair, eh?" Angelo said jokingly.  
  
Ryan shot a mean look his direction. Angelo looked at Art and shrugged.  
  
Ashlyn was the first one of the girls to come out, and she looked right at home in her costume. No surprise to the three of them, Ashlyn had a full body suit the same color as their outfits with a red rose pattern up one leg. The Genogoth logo was proudly displayed across the chest. The whole suit was made out of leather, of course. Her red hair was pulled into pig-tails and hung over her shoulders on either side. She walked up to join the boys.  
  
"Xi and Jane will be out in a second. Jane was helping Xi with her hair."  
  
As soon as she said it, Angelo and Art busted out laughing. They couldn't help it.  
  
A crash and the sound of glass breaking came from upstairs. Not even waiting for the other two girls or even attempting to let them know they were leaving, the four students that were suited up took off for the stairs. They rushed up the stairs and through the foyer. As they entered the living room area, they froze in horror. Dr. Frank's body was lying broken in a pool of blood in the middle of the floor. Art rushed over to him and felt for a pulse.  
  
Nothing.  
  
He shook his head and closed Dr. Frank's eyes. He stood up and noticed for the first time, Jeska was cowering in the corner by the fireplace. Ashlyn ran over to her and tried to calm her down.  
  
"What happened?" Ashlyn asked her.  
  
"Mon.Mon.Monster." She stuttered out. Then she pointed to the top of the stairs leading up to the girls' dorms and screamed.  
  
Ashlyn turned toward the stairs leading to the dorms and there stood a man covered in blood with three long metal claws sticking out of each hand. He snarled and flew down the steps heading right for Art. Art wasn't sure what was going to happen in the next couple of seconds, but he knew he'd be dead before the night was over. He braced himself for the upcoming attack. 


	5. Dealing with Tradgedy

Chapter 4 Dealing with Tragedy  
  
There were very few things in the world that scared Art Bantham. He had grown up on the streets, spending day after day running from what he thought was an anti-mutant organization. He had done time in jail for drug dealing. He had even stared down the barrel of quite a few guns. None of that scared him.  
  
Few people had ever seen Wolverine in a Berserker rage, and even fewer ever lived to tell about it. Here he was staring down Wolverine, who was rushing right at him. If he was smart, he'd move. He was smart, and he would've moved, except for the fact that fear had rendered him paralyzed. He witnessed what he thought was the last moment of his life as Wolverine leapt through the air at him.  
  
All of a sudden, time stopped. Or so he thought.  
  
"Ashlyn, Angelo, do something! I can't hold him like this forever! He's struggling fiercely!"  
  
Art realized Ryan was holding Wolverine telekinetically. And it was putting a heck of a strain on him to do it.  
  
Through the broken window snaked the vines from outside. Ashlyn directed the vines over to where Wolverine was floating in the air. Ryan had dropped to a knee under the strain of holding him up, but he concentrated hard enough to lower Wolverine into the vines. They wrapped him up tight enough that he couldn't use his claws to tear out.  
  
Art never saw it coming.  
  
All of a sudden, he felt exquisite pain in his back as the claws raked across it. He fell to the floor and Angelo, Ashlyn, and Ryan saw Sabertooth standing where Art had been standing only as second sooner.  
  
Jeska shrieked again from her corner. This only drew Sabertooth's attention her direction. Jeska dove into the unlit fireplace, and started climbing up the chimney. Sabertooth ignored her and turned his attention to the member of the team that was standing behind him and to the right. He lunged at him.  
  
Angelo sprung into the air and vaulted over his head kicking him in the back on his way down. Sabertooth slid on the ground toward the window where Ashlyn already had vines coming in to wrap him up. Only this time, the person she was wrapping could move. Ryan was too busy rushing to check on Art to provide any help.  
  
Sabertooth got to his feet and started thrashing wildly. Ripping vines apart. Ashlyn shrieked and grabbed her head and collapsed to the floor. Once the vines stopped trying to wrap around him, Sabertooth turned to Angelo again and started running at him.  
  
"Ah, crap!" Angelo said and he braced himself to spring again when Sabertooth got close enough.  
  
All of a sudden Sabertooth roared out and grabbed his head and collapsed face first into the hard wood floor.  
  
Confused, Angelo looked around and saw ShiKay and Wolf-pup standing in the door to the foyer. Tears were streaking down Wolf-pup's face and she had her palm pointed toward Sabertooth's now unconscious body.  
  
"What did you do, chica?" Angelo said over the thumping sounds coming from the encased Wolverine.  
  
"I just yelled really loud in his head with my power. I guess he's more animal than man." She said through the tears.  
  
There was a ripping sound and a loud growl as Wolverine ripped free of his casing. He sprung to his feet and sniffed the air. He turned toward the fallen Sabertooth.  
  
All of a sudden there was a voice in his head. "Calm down, Wolverine, please. We are friends."  
  
Wolverine retracted his claws with a SNIKT! And grabbed his head as he dropped to one knee. "Jean?" he said confused.  
  
"No, not Jean." Wolf-pup said telepathically, while looking confused at ShiKay, who had no clue what was going on. "But a friend nonetheless."  
  
Wolverine looked up at Wolf-pup and snarled at her. "Get..Out.Of my..HEAD!!" he roared as he sprang through the air at her.  
  
There was a loud crash as Samson came crashing through the window, landing on Wolverine. Snarling, the mountain lion and Wolverine rolled across the floor until they hit a recliner and were separated.  
  
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Wolf-pup yelled causing the mountain lion to cower away. This last shock proved too much for Wolverine, who blacked out and hit the floor.  
  
As Black pulled up the driveway, he knew immediately something was wrong. The front windows were all busted out and that had to be a sign of trouble. He prayed that he wasn't too late. Immediately, he was on the phone with Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., letting him know that he needed back- up to capture Sabertooth.  
  
Black bolted through the door and found the living room in shambles. When he saw Dr. Franks' lifeless body, he feared the worst. He pulled out his Glock that he carried everywhere with him, wondering if it would even do any good if he ran into Sabertooth. He then rushed to the nearest intercom speaker and punched the speaker button.  
  
"Kids, if you're alive, please come out." He said frantically in the PA system. After a few moments, a reply came back to him.  
  
"In the infirmary, Mr. Black." It was Xi's voice.  
  
Black rushed for the stairs and ran down to the infirmary where a black creature that looked like a shadow..no, that was Jeska..was working on trying to stabilize somebody. Black's heart sank as he got close enough to realize that it was Art.  
  
Black put his hand up to his mouth in a look of sadness, and turned away as his eyes began to water up. That was when he noticed the bodies of Wolverine and Sabertooth slumped in the corner. His look quickly changed from a look of sadness to a look of shock as he turned back to the other students.  
  
"H-H-How?" He started to phrase an entire question, but instead turned and rushed out of the infirmary and across the hall to his office. He pulled out two mutant inhibitor collars from the small armory he kept there.  
  
Returning to the infirmary he clamped the collars on Sabertooth and Wolverine.  
  
"What are you doing?" Angelo asked coming up behind Black. Black jumped at the sound of his voice.  
  
"These collars will negate both of their healing factors. Hopefully that will keep them out long enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to get here. What happened to Art?" He said as he crossed over to the bed where his student lay.  
  
"'tooth got him pretty bad." Xi said.  
  
"I have a theory that if he could shift into something..anything.and shift back, his wounds would be gone and he'd be fine."  
  
"But." Black encouraged when she didn't continue.  
  
"But he's got to be conscious to shift."  
  
Soot, thought Black to himself, she's covered in soot. He made a mental note to ask her about what had happened to her later.  
  
Their first battle and it had to be against two (not one, but TWO) of the biggest and best killers in the world. And now he may have lost one of his students. Black was starting to have doubts about this whole idea. He wondered how Xavier dealt with these types of situations.  
  
S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up not long after Black left the infirmary. They had given up Sabertooth to S.H.I.E.L.D., who put him into an adamantium cage and hauled him off.  
  
Once Sabertooth was gone, Black had removed the inhibitor collar from Wolverine and allowed Jeska to hook him up and try to let him stabilize.  
  
It hadn't taken long and now Black and all the kids, except for Art, waved goodbye to Wolverine as he left to go back to New York.  
  
Jeska had finally gotten Art to stabilize. However, he remained in a deep coma. Jeska had left to clean up the soot that covered her body.  
  
Black had called the authorities and they had come and picked up Dr. Franks' body. Black and all the kids had been thoroughly questioned, and after the authorities had been given the same story from all the people, they left satisfied.  
  
Black stayed with Art while Jeska got some sleep. For the first time in a week, he was questioning whether he was doing the right thing. The kids had done pretty well against both Wolverine and Sabertooth. But the thought occurred to him that both Wolverine and Sabertooth had been fighting each other for over two days straight. Neither man was even fighting at 50% by the time they had reached the mansion. And now one of his students could very well be dead because of the situation.  
  
The noise of the door caught his attention. He looked up to see Jeska walking through the door.  
  
"Go get some rest." She said. "I can handle it."  
  
"Alright. Be careful, though, because all the kids are in a pretty shook up state. They've all been down here at least once. Angelo's been down here even more than everyone else combined. I think he blames himself." Black said as he exited the room.  
  
"The door is always open for you too, you know." Jeska said stopping Black at the door.  
  
"Thank you." And the door slid shut behind him. 


	6. Highway to the DangerRoom?

Chapter 5  
  
There were plenty of things that Angelo could have been thinking about. He had a father that wanted him dead. Brothers and Sisters that he'd probably never see again. And a mother that he'd never known. He'd had a girl, Lucy, that he was desperately in love with, and had no idea what happened to him, because he had fled Mexico so fast.  
  
None of that was on his mind. All he could think about was Art. He had been standing just behind Art. He had seen Sabertooth creep up from the foyer, and fear had not only paralyzed his muscles, but also his speech. He could do nothing as Sabertooth slashed the back of his friend. He couldn't get over it. After all he'd been through, he thought nothing could scare him. He had been wrong, and it may have cause Art to lose his life. He couldn't help but feel responsible. He couldn't help but feel that the others held him to blame. Deep down inside, he knew Art was going to be alright. Or at least he wanted to know it.  
  
There was a knock at his door. He ignored it at first, then got up and walked over to the door and cracked it open. Black was standing there with a solemn look on his face. Angelo's heart sank to the floor. Had some of the other's told Black that he had watched Sabertooth attack Art?  
  
"Mind if I come in?" Black asked after starting at Angelo through the crack for a minute.  
  
"Yeah, I guess. It's your house." Angelo let the door fall open and walked back over to his bed. He plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.  
  
Black walked in, and for the frist time since the kids had gotten there, Black saw how one of the kids had decorated their room. Insense wafted in his nose as he noticed the oriental style that the bedroom had been done in. Tapestries hung on the wall with oriental lettering on it. Chinese, Japanese, he didn't know which. He had bamboo vertical blinds covering the windows, and on each side of his bed stood and end-table. On one was a zen-garden and the other had a perfectly pruned Banzai Tree.  
  
"I like the décor, though I may not understand it." Black said casually.  
  
"Thanks, senor, most of these were gifts from a friend before I fled to the states. This is all I could fit in the truck when I left." Angelo said. "Something tells me you didn't come here to see my casa, though."  
  
"You're right. I wanted to talk to you about Art. Whatever you are feeling, whatever you are going through, you have to know it's not your fault. I talked with all the kids and they all said there was no possible way to have seen Sabertooth coming up behind Art, not even you."  
  
But he did see it. And now he had to live with that guilt forever if Art died. Better that none of them realized he could have seen, he guessed.  
  
"Anyway," Black continued once Angelo didn't say anything, "Just to let you know, if you need to talk, Jeska and myself are always available."  
  
With that, he got up and left, leaving Angelo to think about his words.  
  
******  
  
Ashlyn felt comfortable. She had wrapped herself up in Honeysuckle vines. Soft and warm, they made the perfect blanket. She herself wasn't worried about Art. She knew he was going to be ok.  
  
Jane sat in the corner, playing fetch with Achorn, her pet squirrel. She'd toss an acorn across the room and Achorn would chase it, retrieve it, and bring it back to her.  
  
After throwing the acorn and watching Achorn take off in search for it, she looked up toward the bed and at the cocooned Ashlyn that was lying there.  
  
"You think he's going to be alright?" Jane asked.  
  
"Of course he is," Ashlyn said, not even bothering to sit up. "You heard Jeska, all he's got to do is wake up, morph into something, and morph back."  
  
"She said that was a theory." Jane pointed out. "She never said that it would work."  
  
An awkward silence followed, as Jane looked around the room. The walls were covered with vines so that you couldn't even see them. The only decorations on the walls besides the vines were the flowers that grew on them. The floor was bare and the only furniture in the room was her bed, a dresser, and the seat upon which Jane now sat.  
  
Achorn returned with the acorn and dropped it in front of her, then sat up on his haunches and twitched his tail.  
  
"Here, go get it." She said and threw the acorn out the window. She felt annoyance coming from him as he hopped up on the window seal and jumped out onto the roof to try and find the acorn.  
  
The Frisbee sliced through the air and slapped into Ryan's hand as he caught it. His hand stung and he quickly changed hands and shook his right hand to get feeling back into it. It was about 45 degrees out today and catching much of anything was beginning to be a chore. Xi, for the most part hadn't shown any symptoms of the cold getting to her.  
  
He flung the Frisbee back her direction. He knew they shouldn't be having fun, with Art being in the condition that he was in. This was actually the only thing they could think of to get their mindws off of the situation. He caught the Frisbee again, and once again his hands sang to him. He tossed the Frisbee toward the front porch and guided it into the storage box there with a telekinetic push. Xi came walking up to him.  
  
"All done for the day?" she asked.  
  
"My hands are stinging. Are you not cold?"  
  
"No, not really. You're just a wuss." She elbowed him teasingly.  
  
Ryan climbed up onto the front porch and had a seat in the porch swing. Xi sat down beside him. She sat cross-legged and plopped her head down on his shoulder.  
  
"Have you thought about it?" Ryan asked.  
  
"Of course." She said. "I think he'll be alright." Xi answered.  
  
"Huh?" Ryan said and looked at her quizzically. "Oh, you mean Art. Yeah, he'll be fine."  
  
"What were you talking about?" Xi asked.  
  
"I was talking about that training facility in the basement. Where we got our uniforms. Have you thought about it?"  
  
"Oh, no, I guess I haven't thought much about it."  
  
"Let's go find Black and see what's going on. It looks like someone just left in the middle of the project. Maybe he'll let us finish it up. That'll give us something to do."  
  
Ryan and Xi ran into Black in the living room as he was coming down the stairs that led up to the boys dorm. Ryan talked to Black about the idea nad he explained that the mutant inventor Forge had been there and already set up all the difficult equipment. All that was left was putting the workout equipment that was in the main part together and putting it in the work-out room. Black did ask one favor. If they were going to help out down there, he wanted them to take Angelo with them. He explained that Angelo had been taking Art's condition pretty hard, and he thought that this might get his mind off it.  
  
Ryan and Xi agreed that they'd take Angelo with them and left to go to his room to get him.  
  
They met Angelo as he was coming out of his room. He had his jacket on. "Oh, hey guys." He said almost passively. "I'm going to go shoot some hoops. Help get my mind off of this loco situation."  
  
"Hey, that's actually what we came up here for. We're gonna help put the workout equipment together for the training room. We wanted to know if you wanted to come give us a hand." Xi said.  
  
"Um, yeah, sure. Let me put up my jacket." Angelo turned and cracked his door and threw his jacket on his bed. He turned around and gestured toward the stairs.  
  
Ryan led the way down the stairs to where the basement stairs were, then he continued on down to the basement. The large hangar-sized door was already open. Ryan noticed Angelo's eyes never left the Infirmary's door as they walked by. Apparently he was taking it really hard. Ryan also noticed that Black's office door was closed. Ryan thought that they were going to lose Angelo to the Infirmary, but he continued on into the traingin room with them.  
  
"So how do you do it?" Ashlyn asked Jane from on her bed. She had retracted the Honeysuckle covers and was sitting on her bed. "Talk to animals, that is. Do they use words, pictures?"  
  
"Well, yes and no. I feel emotions, and they are just as strongly expressed as any words could ever be. And they feel my emotions as well." Jane explained. "Or at least that's as best as I can describe it."  
  
"Must be nice to know what they are feeling. In a way my power is the same. I can feel what plants feel, but not as strongly. I feel mostly happiness and pain. There are really no other emotions from plants."  
  
"So how do you make them get bigger and stuff?" Jane asked.  
  
"I can manipulate them on a cellular level, I guess. Maybe I make their cells multiply and then disappear, I'm not exactly sure."  
  
Another awkward silence.  
  
"So, do you want to go get something to eat?" Jane asked, breaking the silence.  
  
"Yeah, that sounds great. What sounds good to you?"  
  
"Any kind of meat." She said and smiled.  
  
"That's the best thing I've heard all day." Ashlyn said and hopped off the bed and headed for the door.  
  
They walked downstairs and went into the kitchen. Jane pulled out a package of hamburger meat from the fridge.  
  
"I've got an idea." She said. "Cookout."  
  
"I'll set up the grill." Ashlyn said sliding open the door to the back patio. She walked out onto the massive back porch. She walked over to the grill and dumped the charcoal into it. She sparayed the charcoal with lighter fluid and started the coals blazing. She came back into the kitchen, where Jane was smashing the hamburgers into patties.  
  
Jane pointed over to the lettuce she had gotten out of the fridge. "Could you chop that up for me?" She asked.  
  
"You're joking right?" Ashlyn said staring at the lettuce.  
  
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Here, you make the patties, and I'll make the vegetables."  
  
"No, it's fine, I'll do it." Ashlyn said, bringing a wide-eyed stare to Jane's face. "I've got to get used to this. I don't get and feelings from it, because it's dead. But it's kinda like playing with a cadaver to me."  
  
"Ok, Ash, I'm trying to make FOOD over here!" Jane said.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
They both laughed and set to preparing the cook-out.  
  
Ryan and Angelo were moving a weight bench into the fitness room, as Xi was tightening some bolts on the exercise bike.  
  
"I think this is where I'm going to be spending most of my time." Ryan said.  
  
"Yeah, I think this is a great idea." Angelo said and smiled. It was the first time Ryan had seen him smile since they started fixing the equipment. "I wonder how that outside area works." Angelo said.  
  
"I haven't got a clue, just seems like an open, useless area to me."  
  
"Let's ask Black about it after we get that last bike put together. Then the floor will be clear."  
  
"Hey, GUYS!!" Xi called to them from inside the training area. Angelo and Ryan ran to the door to the fitness room and were shocked to see that the door no longer led out into the training area, but into a forest. What confused them even more was the fact that Xi and the exercise bike were still right outside of the door.  
  
"What happened, chica?" Angelo asked walking out into the forest. The sound of crunching leaves came from his feet. He could feel the branches and leaves crumpling beneath his feet.  
  
"The room just suddenly changed all around me." She said looking in every direction. "It was so gradual, I almost didn't even notice."  
  
Ryan turned toward the entrance to the fitness room and saw that the door was just an opening in the middle of the forest. He shut the door and it disappeared, blending perfectly with the surroundings. He turned back to Angelo and Xi.  
  
"Well, I guess we know what this room is now." He said smiling.  
  
From their left, something bounded through the woods. Something large from the sound of it.  
  
"What is that?" Angelo asked.  
  
"I don't know, but it's coming this way." Xi said.  
  
The sound continued to get closer until a large cat, a little smaller than Samson, came bounding around a rocky out-cropping. It looked at the trio and snarled showing it's teeth.  
  
"Oh, this is a REALLY bad time to not have the 'pup around." Angelo said. 


	7. Danger Room

Author's Note: This chapter should have been longer, but it's a break in the monotony of the story so far, as the next couple of chapters are really long and fit together as a whole, I decided against making them longer and adding this little tid-bit onto the next chapter, and I LOVED the cliff- hanger at the end of Chapter 5, so I'm stuck with this little Chapter-ette. Enjoy, and let me know if my explanation of how the Danger Room works makes any sense. Was really hard to convey how I thought it should work, but I gave it a shot. (  
  
Chapter 6  
  
The cat stared at them for a while, slowly circling the group. Every once in a while it would snarl. The three of them stood side-by-side circling with the cat, trying to keep it in front of them. Xi and Ryan were on the outside with Angelo in the middle.  
  
"I've got an idea." Ryan said. "We need to scare it, make it think we are bigger than it is. It works with bears..."  
  
"Hey, amigo. I don't know if you realize this, but...THIS AIN'T A BEAR!" Angelo said in a voice above a whisper.  
  
"It's worth a shot." Xi whispered.  
  
"Ok, on three. One...Two..Three." And as Ryan reached three all three of them put their hands in the air and screamed at the top of their lungs and stepped toward the cat.  
  
Just then, the cat sprung at Angelo who was standing in the middle. Ryan dove to the right and Xi dove left. Angelo to his credit, dove the only way he could. Straight up. He sprang straight into the air 20 feet and landed with the cat behind him. He spun around just as the cat did, and the cat shot a bare-fanged snarl his direction.  
  
The cat winced as a rock dropped on his head. Angelo looked over and saw Xi picking up rocks off the ground and teleporting them over the cat's head.  
  
"How in the." Angelo started to ask, but the cat sprung at him again. Thinking quick, Angelo sprung up to a tree branch above his head. He reached out for it, expecting his hands to go right through it. He was shocked when he grabbed a solid object. He hauled himself up onto the branch. All of a sudden the branch disappeared, and Angelo fell and landed on his feet. He looked around and realized that not just his branch had disappeared, but the whole reoom had reverted back to the original grid that it was not 5 minutes ago.  
  
The main door slid open and Black walked in. He had a smile on his face. He crossed the room to where the kids were standing, brushing off dust that wasn't really there.  
  
"So what do you think?" Black asked, "Pretty impressive, huh?"  
  
"What..just happened?" Ryan asked.  
  
"You just experienced something Forge called a Danger Room. It's a holographic simulation trainer that uses concentrated Force Fields to imitate solid objects. I just ran a test to see if it was working."  
  
"So that's why you could teleport the rocks and I could climb up on the tree." Angelo said.  
  
"Excactly, and your movement through the environments isn't affected by these four walls. When a program kicks in, a force field actually lifts you up off the ground about an inch. Think about an air-hockey puck on air. As you move, this force field moves with you. So technically, you could walk a hundred miles and never move an inch. The scenery is programmed to move with you so it seems like you are actually walking. If you come to a hill, or any other terrain change, the forcefield will shift to that type of terrain."  
  
"So what if we decide to split up and go separate directions?" Xi asked.  
  
"If you pass certain boundaries, the holographic simulation will put up a false wall between you and another person and this wall will make it seem to the both of you that you are moving apart. An illusion kinda like in a House of mirrors, where you will think someone is standing right next to you, but they are really far away, except opposite. Even your voices and noises you make will be dampened accordingly. It's the closest thing to real life that you can get, and it's your training facility." Black said smiling ear-to-ear. "Now let's go upstairs. Ashlyn and Jane have made up quite the feast. Hamburgers and hot-dogs for everyone." 


	8. Coping

Chapter 7 Coping  
  
As Black, Xi, Ryan, and Angelo emerged from the stairs leading up to the foyer, they could already smell the hamburgers. They walked through the foyer and into the kitchen through a side door. As they were entering, Ashlyn was coming in from the outside with a plate full of hamburgers. She crossed to the table and put the plate of patties down next to the steaks. Xi walked over to the table and looked over all the food they had prepared. There were hamburgers, steaks, and hot dogs. There were also vegetables with ranch dip, baked beans, deviled eggs, and a couple of things she didn't recognize.  
  
"What is this?" Ryan asked picking up a serving spoon and scooping some of a soup-looking substance out of a pot.  
  
"Gumbo." Ashlyn said. "Traditional homemade Louisiana Gumbo."  
  
"Oooh!" Angelo exclaimed as he grabbed a bowl and snatched the spoon out of Ryan's hand. Ryan looked at him like he had been violated.  
  
Jane was just finishing up skinning another cucumber when Xi walked up to her. "How can I help?" Xi asked her.  
  
"Here you go, you can cut this up." She said handing the skinned cucumber to her.  
  
Jeska appeared in the doorway and all the kids looked at her hopefully. She nodded her head to let the kids know that nothing had changed with Art. She had a solemn look on her face and it looked like she hadn't slept in days, even though they all knew she had.  
  
"Ahem." Black cleared his throat breaking the uneasy tension that had settled in the kitchen. "Miss Jeska, we are all sorry for your loss. Dr. Franks was a good man."  
  
The students instantly felt like crap. They had been focusing their thoughts so much on Art, that they had basically forgotten all about Dr. Franks' death for the most part. They all looked at each other, and each one could see the distraught on each other's faces. They each took turns trying to comfort Jeska as best they could.  
  
At the mere mention of his name, Jeska broke down into tears, which made the kids feel even worse. Jane crossed the room first and embraced Jeska, comforting her. Xi and Ashlyn followed. Ryan looked at Angelo just in time to see him start walking over toward her. He followed and suddenly Jeska found herself wrapped up in five sets of arms. She felt minimally better, but she knew they all meant well. She was glad to see such an outpouring of emotion from all of them.  
  
So was Black, who watched from the back of the dining area.  
  
When the embrace finally broke up, Jeska wiped her face and simply said, "Thank You."  
  
"You must be hungry. You are going to join us, right?" Xi asked her.  
  
"Of course I am, that's why I came up here. I'm starved and the smell finally penetrated the infirmary walls." She smiled and everyone spread out to start making plates.  
  
Black fixed a plate and pulled Jeska to the foyer. "You hang out with the other kids. You're only 27, so you are closer to their age. I'll go sit with Art."  
  
"Thank you. I won't mingle long."  
  
"Take your time."  
  
With that, Black turned to leave, disappearing down the stairs to the infirmary.  
  
Jeska took her plate and went back into the dining area. She sat down at the table next to Ashlyn. Everyone ate in silence.  
  
As Black entered the infirmary, he saw Art's body lying motionless on the bed. He sighed and walked over to his bedside and had a seat in the chair there.  
  
He couldn't help but feel remorse. He had seen a lot of mutants die. But none that he was this close to. He had just been on the island nation of Genosha just before Magneto had killed thousands upon thousands. He had watched the news footage from the Genogoth Helicopter and had wished there had been something he could have done. He wondered if there was somebody out there that even cared that Arthur Bantham was lying on his death bed. When the Genogoths had found Art, he was living on the street with no family. He had gotten busted for drug dealing when he was only 16, and given probation. He violated that probation 6 months later at the age of 17 and was tried as an adult. He served a 6-month sentence in a correctional facility, and upon release had stopped dealing in drugs and instead decided to earn his way through basketball bets and tournaments.  
  
No, there probably wasn't anybody concerned about him. Except for those in this house. Jeska was positive and upbeat outwardly to the kids as far as Art's condition was concerned. The kid's knew in their minds that Art was going to be fine, but Black knew better. He could see it in Jeska's eyes. Her theory wasn't near as sound as she made it out to be. And every hour of every day shredded that theory further and further. When he thought about it this way, he was glad there wasn't anyone else out there concerned about Art. That saved him the responsibility of having to call that person should the worst happen. Black wasn't sure whether Jeska would be able to handle the duties herself or not, he wasn't even sure she was qualified. Regardless of her skill and qualifications, though, she was all that they had. And for the time being, that was going to have to be good enough.  
  
Black heard the phone ringing in his personal office across the hall. He sat down the half-eaten hamburger and crossed the hall.  
  
"Genogoths." Black said as he picked up the phone.  
  
"Did you think you could just fall off the radar? Did you really think we wouldn't find out about you and your little "New Genogoths"?"  
  
"Leather." Black said.  
  
"Ah, I'm touched. You remembered me." Leather said sarcastically. "What are you doing, Black? You know my groups occupation."  
  
"Yes, I do. All to well, actually. You are the number one reason for the fall of the Genogoths. You turned that outfit from Mutant Protectors into Mutant Assassins. How many Sentinels do you have now?"  
  
Leather laughed. It was a laugh that made Black's blood curl. "Protect those kids well, Black. And pray that you never have to find out just how many Sent's I've got." Leather paused. "I don't suppose you are going to make this easy on me, and tell me where you are at.."  
  
"You know me better than that." Black said.  
  
"Yes, I guess I do. Well, let me give you something to think about. Just yesterday we got a good friend of yours. Yesterday we collected on Chill. You remember Chill, don't you?" Leather chuckled. "The problem is that your former pet project, and Chill's wife, Espeth, got away from us. Is she there with you, Black? Well, I don't suppose you'd tell us if she was. But I'll bet she's on her way if she's not there already. Pray you find her before we do, Black, because after she's gone, we have a bounty to collect on one of your students. After Espeth, we're coming after Angelo." With that, Leather hung up the receiver.  
  
Black slammed the phone down in frustration. Somehow Leather had found out about the New Genogoths. "Espeth" Black muttered.  
  
"So what was that all about?"  
  
Black turned toward the door to his office and saw Jeska and the students standing there. Ryan was the one who had asked.  
  
"An old acquaintance." Black started to explain.  
  
"Now would that be Espeth? Or the guy on the phone?" Ashlyn asked.  
  
"Espeth was an inner-circle member that fell in love with a mutant named Chill. Leather was the guy on the phone, he's a mutant-killer for hire. He killed Chill, supposedly, but apparently the bounty was for both Chill and Espeth. He called me thinking that I would either have her here or would know where she was at."  
  
"So this psycho is trying to kill a friend of yours?" Angelo asked.  
  
"It would appear so." Black said  
  
"You have any idea where we can find her? Maybe we can get to her before they do." Xi asked.  
  
"I imagine that if Leather could find me, so shall she. She did learn a thing or two while she was with the Genogoths. Besides if I know her, she's got Styx with her, so she shouldn't have a problem with staying one step ahead of Leather." Black said. "So I imagine we don't need to do anything. She'll find us."  
  
Jeska had disappeared back to the infirmary to check on Art. Black and the kids sat in thought for a moment more before Black made a decision.  
  
"Let's go across the hall and begin training sessions. I have a feeling you are all going to need all the training that you can get here pretty soon."  
  
The kids went into the locker rooms to change into their costumes. Ryan and Angelo both felt a twinge of regret as they walked up to their lockers. Both members' eyes locked on the locker belonging to Art. Both of them immediately pushed the thoughts out of their minds. They both knew they were about to enter into training simulations and they needed to be focused.  
  
The guys came out of the locker room to find the three girls already suited up and talking to Black. Ashlyn was attaching a Black Box to her ankle. It looked like a house arrest monitor to Angelo. He noticed that the other two already had theirs on.  
  
So, you trying to make sure we don't leave the state, amigo?" Angelo asked as he walked up to Black.  
  
Black chuckled and handed Angelo and Ryan their own anklet. These are going to be what you need to protect in this upcoming training exercise." Black pressed the box on the anklet he still held and it lit up. "These are touch sensitive and are set to accept each member's fingertips. We are going to go outside and train in the woods."  
  
Ryan raised his hand, stopping Black so he could ask a question.  
  
"Why don't we use this room?"  
  
"Because we haven't really got a way for Jane to use her powers in these simulations, yet." Black explained. "The object is going to be to eliminate the opposite team. The teams are going to be guys vs. girls. To eliminate your opponents, you just need to touch their box, and set it off. They will be eliminated."  
  
"Wow, we are handicapped 3 on 2, plus we have both the members that manipulate nature on the stacked side. Doesn't sound very fun to me." Ryan said.  
  
"You really think it's going to be fair in the real world?" Black asked smiling. "I want to see how creative you two are."  
  
Everyone tested their boxes to make sure they were working. Once that was completed and the sensors reset, they went outside to begin the exercise. Standing outside the backdoor to the kitchen, Black sent the girls into the woods first. Then he turned to the guys.  
  
"They've been instructed to not work as a team. You guys are now being instructed TO work as a team."  
  
With that, Black signaled for them to start. Ryan and Angelo walked across the lawn and into the woods, not knowing what to expect. 


	9. Gen X

Chapter 8 Gen X Reunited  
  
Paige Guthrie walked into her room at the Xavier Institute and noticed her cellular phone was blinking indicating that she had a call that had been missed. She picked up the cell phone and dialed up her voice messaging to see if there was a message. Sure enough, she heard a familiar voice on the other end.  
  
"Paige, its Monet. X-Corp is allowing me to come to the states for a while, was wondering if you wanted some company. Give me a call back. You know the number here. Oh, and don't tell Jubilee I'm going to be there. Maybe she'll go on vacation before I get there." She laughed as she disconnected the phone.  
  
Paige erased the message and immediately called Monet back. She was already in the air on X-Corp's luxury jet, on her way back to the states for the first time since they had all joined X-Corp after Gen X had disbanded.  
  
"Hey there, Hay Seed." Monet said. "How are things?"  
  
"They are pretty sporadic. Although I must admit, with people like Wolverine and Juggernaut around, things stay interesting."  
  
"First off, before we go any further, I wanted to say I'm sorry for not being there for Angelo's funeral proceedings." Monet said, and she was as sympathetic as Paige had ever heard her be. "We both wanted to be there, but matters kept us here."  
  
Of course she was talking about Sean Cassidy, their former headmaster and leader of the Paris Branch of X-Corp where they had worked. The matters that kept her there, Paige also knew about. Sean's X-Corp had been infiltrated by the mutant Assassin Mystique and Sean had been a casualty of the outcome. Mystique had slit his throat rendering him not only powerless, but also with lack of speech. With that attack, all of the former Gen-X students had left X-Corp and Jubilee and Paige had gone back to the states. Monet had elected to stay behind and take care of their former headmaster, teaching him sign-language so that he could communicate without means of pen and paper with at least her.  
  
Upon returning to the States, the X-Men had been viciously attacked. While Paige had elected to return to the institute to pursue her career as an X-man, Jubilee had left to go to L.A. and spend time with Angelo, and pursue a career as an actress in Hollywood. That had fallen through and Angelo had left to go to New York to borrow money from Jono and Paige to get Jubilee out there with him, where they were both going to join the ranks of the X-Men. Before the attack on the institute, several mutants had been captured and mutilated and left for dead hung up on crosses in front of the Xavier Institute. Among these mutants that were tortured were former New Mutant Magma, and Angelo Espinosa. Jubilee got word that Angelo had been targeted and with money that was sent by Emma Frost, she hopped the first flight back to New York. She arrived too late, however, as Angelo was presumed dead when she got there. She, Paige, Emma, and Jono had been speakers at Angelo's cremating service. And the entire institute had attended. The only people that had been missing were Sean, Monet and Everett. Jubilee had even touched on the fact that she would always have her two angel's watching over her from above. Referring of course to Everett and Angelo.  
  
And now for the first time since the break up of Gen X. All of the remaining members were going to be reunited.  
  
"Don't worry about the funeral." Paige told her. "You and Sean were there in spirit. Everyone knew the situation."  
  
"Ok, it's going to be good to see everyone again. How are Emma and Jono?"  
  
"Jono is a little, well, how do you put this." She tried to find the words. "Even more detached than ever before." She sighed. "As for Emma, well, her and Jean aren't exactly getting along too well at the moment. In fact they have been at each other's throats over Jean's husband, Scott."  
  
"Really? Girl, you have got to fill me in on these details once I land."  
  
Monet told her what time the flight landed and Paige promised she'd be there to pick her up. After she hung up the phone, she went to go find Emma. She found Emma lounging in the living room with a couple of the other residents. Kurt Wagner was hanging from the chandelier, laughing hysterically as Bobby was jumping up and trying to grab him. Jubilation was sitting on the couch with her head tilted back watching the two guys playing around, while blowing bubbles with her gum. Emma was seated at the desk, turned away from a stack of papers. She seemed to be the only one of the four that noticed Paige walked into the room. Paige tapped her skull as her eyes met Emma's.  
  
"Yes, dear?" Emma asked telepathically.  
  
"Monet is coming to the states, and more specifically, she's coming here." Paige saw Emma's face light up with joy. Quickly, Paige added: "Keep it down; she didn't want Jubilee to know. I guess they still hate each other over the Everett situation."  
  
They continued to "talk" a little bit more as Paige filled Emma in on all the details. Emma was ecstatic to have Monet back with the group. When they were in Gen X, Emma had looked at all the students as family, but she had been especially close to Monet St. Croix, growing as close to her as she would a sister.  
  
As their conversation ended, Bobby had managed to get a hold of Kurt's tail and was holding him from getting any higher on the chandelier.  
  
"Alright, Kurt, get down here!" Bobby was saying.  
"No way!" Kurt said and with the traditional BAMF, he disappeared. Bobby suddenly fell on his butt, since the item he was tugging on disappeared along with Kurt.  
  
"Are you two done?" Emma asked Bobby. "I've got paper work I need to get done."  
  
"Well, if you could make Kurt give me back my."  
  
"Bobby, really, you are plenty old enough to solve your own problems. Just please do it in the other room." And with that Emma Frost turned back to her desk to dive back into her papers. She was worth billions of dollars, since she was the CEO of Frost Enterprises, and she had recently made the mistake of firing her accountant after she found out that he was leaking confidential information to the stock market. The mistake was that she had fired him before hiring a replacement. Now she was stuck doing all the financial book work herself, and she really hated doing anything she could hire someone to do for her.  
  
Paige for her part decided to go outside and enjoy the nice weather. She went back up to her room to change into some sweatpants and sweatshirt, which is what she typically wore out to go running in during the morning. She turned to leave her room and saw Jubilee standing in the doorway.  
  
"So what's the big news?" She said around a bubble.  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"I saw you and Emma eye-locked" She said with a quizzical look on her face. "I also saw you tap your head, which means you two were talking to each other where the rest of us couldn't hear. So what gives?"  
  
Paige sighed. She hated that the girl was so perceptive and active all the time. She didn't feel there was much reason to not tell her about Monet. Paige knew she wasn't going on vacation anytime soon, so she was going to find out sooner or later.  
  
"Monet is coming home for a while."  
  
"Oh, is that all? Geez, Paige, I thought you had some kind of Juicy Gossip. I knew about that last week."  
  
Paige just looked at her with a wide-eyed surprised look on her face.  
  
Jubilee explained: "You do realize that Sean can still type on a computer, right? He told me a week ago Monet was coming down here."  
  
Paige wondered why Sean had said nothing to her in her e-mails about it, but decided against pursuing the matter any further. Sean probably thought that since Monet and Paige were still on talking terms, that Monet had probably told Paige about it already. He probably e-mailed Jubilee because he knew Monet wouldn't tell her.  
  
"And don't worry, Paige, I'm not going to want to go with you to pick her up, so you don't have to worry about anything. There won't be a scene between me and Monet the whole time she's here." Jubilee looked away from Paige and added, "Besides, the more I think about it, the more I miss her."  
  
"I've got an idea. Why don't you go get your roller-blades and go running with me? Well, I'll run you roll." Paige suggested. Jubilee smiled and went to go get her blades and met Paige at the bottom of the stairs. The two of them headed for the door, when Paige opened up the door to go outside, her cell-phone rang again. She looked at the number expecting it to be Monet, but instead got a confused look on her face.  
  
"It's an unknown number." Paige said.  
  
"I wouldn't answer it. Probably a wrong number and will just waste your minutes." Jubilee said as she was pulling her roller blades on.  
  
Paige waited until the call got forwarded to her mailbox and clipped the phone back onto her waist. No sooner had she done that, the phone started chirping indicating she had a message. She looked at Jubilee. "So much for it being a wrong number." She said as she pulled the phone back out and accessed her voice messages.  
  
Jubilee watched as Paige's face went from confused to troubled. When she finally hung up the phone, she was staring at Jubilee, looking right through her.  
  
"Who was it?" Jubilee asked curiously.  
  
"It was Espeth. She's in trouble and she's at the Massachusetts Academy. You go get Emma, and I'll go get Chamber. Meet us at the Blackbird."  
  
Without another word, Jubilee sprinted back into the house to go find their mentor, and Paige took off to the one place she knew Jono would be: The Danger Room. 


	10. Espeth

Chapter 9 Espeth  
  
Paige looked into the cockpit where Bobby Drake and Kurt Wagner were controlling the Blackbird. Xavier had insisted that none of the kids could fly a Blackbird until they were 21, for insurance reasons, and Emma didn't have a clue how to fly one. She always had her "people" fly here wherever she needed to go.  
  
"How much longer?" Paige asked Kurt, who was in the pilot seat.  
  
"Just a little longer, mein friend. Just a little longer." Kurt said. Paige loved his German accent. There was something about accent's that got under her skin. She turned around to head back to the seats and was alarmed to find Jono standing right behind her. As usual, his upper half of his torso and lower half of his face was covered with his traditional wrap that contained his ever flowing energy.  
  
"You alright, luv?" He projected telepathically. Not having a mouth meant that was the only way he could talk. "You took off up here rather hastily."  
  
Accents. Paige shook her head and replied: "I'm fine, just getting kinda antsy to find out what's going on now. We've learned in the past that if Espeth comes calling, it's usually for a good reason. It's been so long since we've had a mission that was just ours, you know? So long since we've been by ourselves at the academy. Guess I might be feeling a little nostalgic."  
  
"I agree with you about Espeth, but you can't be worrying about stuff until it happens. That's your problem, luv. You are always thinking too far ahead."  
  
"And you are never thinking far enough." She said and pushed her way past him to return to her seat next to Jubilee.  
  
Back at the academy, Jono and Paige had been THE couple that everyone talked about. They had been so in love with each other that nothing could separate them. Nothing except for one thing. It had always been Paige's ambition to become an X-Man. It was why she was at the academy. On the last day the academy was open, Jono was the only one that had gotten a letter inviting him to come to the Institute and join the X-Men. That's when the problems started. Paige was instantly jealous that Jono was going to be living out her dream. She eventually swallowed her pride and stood next to Jono for months after that. Only to find out second hand that he had had an off again, on again relationship with Pop Superstar Lila Cheney. Upon finding out evidence of the relationship herself, the aftermath wasn't pretty. Jono didn't deny the relationship, in fact, just the opposite. He seemed to flaunt it in her face. Hurt and confused, she didn't talk to him again for a year, until she came back to the states and joined the X-Men. Now it seemed everything she did with the X-Men was tainted by her need to show him up. Yes, he had gotten here first, but she was better, and she felt that she needed to prove it. She has developed feelings for Warren Worthington III, the mutant known as Angel. He had the same feelings for her as she did him, but Paige was often left wondering if she had these feelings because she actually loved him, or if this was a way she could flaunt her new relationship in Jono's face and make him feel the same way she had felt a year ago. The answer wasn't obvious and through all the studying she had done throughout her life, she was used to everything having a definite answer. The situation annoyed her to no end.  
  
Coming out of her thoughts, she turned to look out the window and ran her nose right into a huge bubble gum bubble, popping it.  
  
"Hey! What gives, Paige? That was the biggest one yet!" Jubilee complained.  
  
Paige had to laugh. Whenever she felt down, there was always care- free Jubilee to brighten her day. Half the time she didn't even know it. Paige wished her life was that simple. "Sorry, Jubes. It was an accident."  
  
Jubilee scooted closer to the window, giving Paige a mock accusatory stare and started to blow a bubble again. Paige acted like she was going to pop it several times, causing Jubilee to gasp each time she did. Whenever Jubilee gasped in anticipation the bubble would shrink back in on itself a little, and Jubilee would get an annoyed look on her face. Paige busted up laughing, which caused Jubilee to do the same, and at that point the bubble was history, and so was any future attempt. Each time she tried to blow another one, Paige would start laughing, causing Jubilee to go into fits herself.  
  
The intercom buzzed and Kurt started speaking. "Zis is your captain speaking. Ze weather outside is lovely in Massachussettes today, not a cloud in site. We will be beginning our decent shortly. Please return your trays to their normal upright position, and please remember that your seat cushions cannot be used as a flotation device, so I hope you know how to swim."  
  
The plane touched down on the front lawn of the Massachussets academy and Paige and Jubilee looked out the window to see a familiar van parked outside the academy. Styx was with Espeth, that was a good sign.  
  
Styx was the technological genius behind the original Genogoth group. There wasn't a computer system in the world that he couldn't get into, a phone he couldn't tap, and information he couldn't find. That always made him a valuable ally. And with his full beard, shaggy hair, hemp jewelry and tye-dyed shirts; his hippie looks made him the last person you'd expect to be a computer whiz.  
  
The ramp lowered to the lawn and as Jono, Jubilee, and Paige began descending the ramp, they saw the familiar green haired girl they knew as Espeth walking across the lawn. She waved at them as they approached. When they got to her, she wrapped them all in a big hug. Paige realized that it looked as though she had been crying.  
  
"So what's this all about?" Paige asked her.  
  
"Let's go inside and I'll tell you all about it." Espeth said, sniffling.  
  
Paige and Espeth started walking toward the front porch where Styx was waiting for them. He waved to the group as they approached. Jubilee, Jono, Emma, Bobby, and Kurt hung back.  
  
"Must be pretty serious," Bobby said looking at everyone. "She looked pretty torn up."  
  
"You guys notice Chill isn't around..." Jono said looking around.  
  
"Probably stayed behind. Had a job or something." Jubilee said.  
  
They all found out differently when they got into the living room of the academy and Espeth told them the horrific tale.  
  
It had been a stormy night and Espeth and Chill were enjoying a relaxing night at their cabin on Puget Sound. Life was getting hectic for the both of them and they had needed a vacation. Chill was working as Recall's agent, booking him in promotional spots and working out the details behind his career. He had started receiving threatening phone calls against Recall, which wasn't all that out of the ordinary, until the person started mentioning things that he shouldn't have known about Recall. Personal Things. Chill tried to stand up for Recall, and once the caller had found out who Chill was, Chill realized this was someone they had ran into before, and the threats were real. He had notified Recall and Recall had agreed he needed to get out of the spotlight for a while. He had left his show and went underground waiting for this whole thing to blow over. Espeth and Chill had decided to do the exact same thing and had been vacationing at their cabin for about a week already. But there was no getting away from the person that was making the call. That night, a former associate of Espeth's had shown up on the doorstep of the cabin. The man known only as Leather was standing there with blood pouring down a wound in his head. Espeth and Chill had quickly brought him into the cabin and treated the wound. Leather told them about how the Genogoths had disbanded and Black had gone crazy and killed 32 mutants that were formerly under the Genogoths. When they refused to believe it, he had produced documents proving the facts.  
  
They spent the rest of the night talking and reminiscing and come time for them to go to sleep, Chill and Espeth had insisted that Leather make himself at home until he felt better. As they bedded down in their room, they still couldn't believe what Leather had told them. They fell asleep with those thought on their mind.  
  
Espeth had suddenly been awakened from Chill shaking her. She realized she had been coughing in her sleep and she was coughing still as she realized the room was filled with smoke. Chill was saying something, but she couldn't hear him over the roar of the flames. Flames? She spun around in the bed and saw that the whole wall that was connected to the living room was one big wall of flames. She looked around the room and realized that the whole room was on fire. She started to panic, throwing the covers from the bed against the flames, uselessly trying to put it out. Chill had grabbed a blanket and used his mutant ability to freeze it around her and then he had pushed her through a window and out into the woods. Before she realized it, she was running through the woods in sheer terror. She looked behind her expecting to see Chill running right behind her and when she realized he wasn't behind her anymore she started running back toward the house.  
  
As she ran up on the house, she saw Leather and a couple of other people she didn't recognize standing outside the window she had come out of. On the ground was a person on their knees. Not a person....Chill. She started to run up to him when Leather pulled out a gun and shot Chill execution style. It was all Espeth could do to stifle the scream that erupted in her throat. Once again, she turned and ran as hard as she could through the woods. She spent the next four days in the woods trying to find some kind of civilization. Once she finally did find a house, she dialed the number of the only person she knew she could still trust. Recall. Recall was still in touch with Styx and had sent Styx to get her and take her wherever she would feel safe. She had decided to come to the Massachussets academy and look up Gen X.  
  
There were many pauses in the story where Espeth would start sobbing uncontrollably, and they all understood why. They had in a way gotten used to losing people. It just was part of the territory of the kind of work they did. But it never got any easier, and each one of them knew exactly how she felt.  
  
"So do you think it's true? About Black?" Paige asked finally.  
  
"It has to be!" Espeth said. "Leather and Black worked together. I don't know what happened, but the Genogoths have been corrupted and now apparently serve as a Mutant Hunting group."  
  
"It can't be true." Styx said at last. He had been standing off to one corner listening to the story for what had to be the hundredth time. "I haven't been in contact with Black for over a year, but I know him better than anyone, and he would have had no part in this."  
  
"Then they probably offed him too." Jono said, sighing into his hands. "This sucks."  
  
"Anyway, Leather knows I'm a witness to what happened and he will be looking for me. That's why I came here. You guys have dealt with this kind of thing before and who better to trust than my best friends?"  
  
Espeth looked at Kurt as if seeing him for the first time since they had gotten there. "What the..." She started to say.  
  
Kurt smiled and said, "Not now, child, first we have an appointment to make." He said and looked at Paige, tilting his head.  
  
"Oh, crap, we've got to get to the airport, I told Monet I'd be there to pick her up!"  
  
"Pick her up? I guess a lot has happened with you guys I don't know about."  
  
"We'll fill you in on the way." Jubilee said, popping another bubble. 


End file.
